RybAxel
RybAxel was a heel tag team of Ryback and Curtis Axel. Both had formerly worked together as "Paul Heyman guys", but then rejected their mentor and formed a tag team together. Their team name is a portmanteau formed from the shared A of Ryback (derived from "Ryan the Silverback") and Axel, the surname Joseph Curtis Hennig chose to honor his grandfather. History Background Axel used to hold the Intercontinental Championship until he lost it to Big E. Besides being proteges to Paul Heyman under their new identities, they were both former members of Nexus as Skip Sheffield and Michael McGillicutty. Rocky Beginnings (November 2013 - March 2014) Axel and Ryback initially formed out of mutual spite for their former advocate/manager, Paul Heyman. While they scored a substantial win over tag team champions; The Brotherhood, they often were on the losing side of their matches and didn't particularly gel in the first several weeks of teaming, though In late-January, they began coming into their element and in the meantime, even adopted an official team name. They thwarted the likes of Los Matadores, The Usos and even decimated Darren Young enough for his partner Titus O'Neil to attack and leave him. This short run of dominance ended on the kick-off to Elimination Chamber when they were defeated by Cody Rhodes & Goldust, with Curtis' grandfather in their corner. Number One Contenders (April 2014) After Elimination Chamber, RybAxel became noticabely closer, with Ryback going as far as to wear their faces on his singlet and changing his signature phrase to "RybAxel Rules!". The Authority felt they had helped enough to earn themselves a WWE Tag Team Championship match at Wrestlemania 30 against champions The Usos and challengers Los Matadores and The Real Americans, they were eventually the second team eliminated. Along with their new found friendship, they became a more confident and established tagteam, causing further friction between The Brotherhood while also proving themselves worthy of a championship match, but were once again defeated by The Usos; April 28 on RAW. 2014 May 5 they competed in a 20-man Battle Royal for the WWE United States Championship being defended by Dean Ambrose. They teamed up against Sheamus, with Ryback managing to take him down. Ambrose eliminated Axel, and then also eliminated Ryback, leaving only himself, Sheamus and Jack Swagger left in the ring. Although the last known time they competed together as a team was August 18 on Raw (where they and teammate Randy Orton lost to RVD, Sheamus and Reigns), they did not officially agree to part ways until November 6 on Superstars. In wrestling *'Finishing Moves' **''Perfect-Plex'' (Bridging cradle suplex) - Axel **''Shell Shocked (Cradle suplex lifted and dropped into a running horizontal muscle buster) - Ryback *'Manager(s)' **Paul Heyman *'Entrance theme(s)' **'"Meat on the Perfect Table"''' by Jim Johnston See also *The Beard and the Best, a team including another former Heyman guy, CM Punk External links * Cagematch.net Profile Category:2013 debuts Category:World Wrestling Entertainment teams and stables Category:2014 disbandments Category:World Wrestling Entertainment alumni